As reported in yesterday’s blog, the tropical west Pacific has been active recently with typhoons Saola and Damrey both causing disruption in parts of south-east Asia. Saola weakened to a tropical storm before making landfall over the Fujian province of China. Huge amounts of rainfall were recorded in Taiwan and mainland China from the storm. Taichung on Taiwan recorded 316 mm (12.4”) rain in just 12 hours yesterday.

Meanwhile just a few hours earlier Tropical Storm Damrey made landfall near the border of Jiangsu and Handong provinces of China. As a more compact system, it did not produce as much rain as Saola, but still packed winds of over 60 mph as it made landfall.

As expected, the high activity in the west Pacific continues. Tropical Storm Haikui has formed and is expected to develop into a large typhoon as it moves towards south-east Asia. Behind this it is likely that yet another tropical storm will form in the next couple of days.

Tropical Storm Ernesto

Meanwhile in the Atlantic the tropical depression which developed on Wednesday has strengthened into Tropical Storm Ernesto. It is still fairly disorganised, but bringing stormy conditions to the Caribbean islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent having already passed over Barbados. There is still uncertainty as to how much Ernesto will strengthen, but it is not impossible it could become a hurricane as it continues its track westwards through the warm waters of the Caribbean Sea in the coming days.

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